Archive for September, 2006

Pictures of the Orange version of the HTC Trinity have appeared on the web.

The device will be called the Orange SPV M700 and looks fantastic. It will be the first WM5 device to feature integrated GPS for satellite navigation, as you can see from the screenshots which it features Orange Navigator 7! Expect GPS Qualcomm gpsONE , HSDPA, EDGE, Bluetooth and Wifi too.

It’s as yet unclear whether or not Orange will release this in the UK but we do hope so!

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Batteries and fuel cells are established contenders to power laptops and mobile phones, but now researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with a novel approach to the power conundrum – by building an engine on a chip.

Gas-turbine engines more normally power whole cities but MIT’s Professor Alan Epstein was determined that minuscule versions could be used to “power a person”.

Ten years on from having the brainwave, Professor Epstein believes the microengine could give batteries a run for their money, offering 10 times the power of a battery of the same weight at the same price point.

“A laptop that will run for three hours on battery charge will run for 15 to 20 hours using the microengine and it should end up costing no more than current batteries,” said Professor Epstein.

He believes it could be available commercially within three to five years.

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Astraware and Revolution Software are excited to announce a special Broken Sword promotion to celebrate 10 years since the release of the original Broken Sword.

When the game was originally released on 30th September 1996, no-one could have forseen that the game would still be receiving rave reviews a full decade later. ‘Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars’ has been released on several platforms including PC, PlayStation(R), GameBoy Advance(R), and most recently for Palm OS(R) and Windows Mobile(R). Broken Sword is now an award-winning franchise with three sequels. The most recent, ‘Broken Sword 4: The Angel of Death’, has just been released and is currently number 1 in the charts.

“We always dreamed of writing the game on a device that would reach beyond hardcore gamers; with the emphasis on intelligent, cerebral gameplay, rather than the requirement for manual dexterity, the game was always intended to have a broad appeal. Writing the game on Palm OS(R)and Windows Mobile(R) platforms has finally allowed us to achieve this goal”, said Charles Cecil, Managing Director and co-founder of Revolution Software.

“We are really proud of how the game has turned out on Palm OS(R) and Windows Mobile(R).”, said Tony Warriner, co-founder of Revolution Software, “The PC version was praised for its beauty and subtlety, and this has translated perfectly”.

To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the release of ‘Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars’, Astraware is making the game available at a very special discount price. From Friday 29th September to Sunday 1st October 2006 ONLY, ‘Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars’ for Palm OS(R) and Windows Mobile(R) for Pocket PC will be available with an Anniversary-only discount. This offer is available from the Astraware website for this limited period only. Visit the site at http://www.astraware.com/promo/brokensword1 for more details.

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I got a chance to play with one of Sony’s new mobile communication devices in the form of the Mylo today

Small enough for a pocket or purse, the slim, oblong-shaped device features a 2.4 inch color LCD (measured diagonally) with a slide out QWERTY keyboard for comfortable and quick thumb typing.

The device, available in black or white, comes embedded with popular instant messaging services: the Google Talk™ instant messaging service, Skype and Yahoo! Messenger™. These services are free and the product does not require initial computer setup or a monthly service contract.

These things are pretty cool but the web browser isn’t great, it renders some sites rather strangely!

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Pretec have just announced that they will be shipping 16gb Compact Flash cards.

The company says the demand for higher capacity and better performing flash cards has been increasing with introduction of ever higher resolution digital cameras and the emergence of new multimedia appliances and industrial applications. Over the last 10 years the company has seen a 4,000 times increase in CF capacity from the first announcement of Pretec 4MB CF card to this 16GB unit.

Access speed can be up to 80X (12MB/s) for Pretec industrial CF card and up to 133X (20MB/s) for Pretec commercial CF card. Pretec 16GB CF card will start sampling in October with mass production in Q4 of this year.

I don’t know what price these 16gb cards will be selling for but the price of the 12gb cards is as high as $10,000+ in some online stores!!

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Tracy and I are in Florida for 8 nights so we are blogging from the hotel room!

Having just arrived both of us are totally knackered. Just went over to McDonalds for something to eat but we’re off to bed now.

We leave you with a photo of the plane we went on and a pic of the view out of the window, as you can see, not much to look at all the way. Normal blogging service will continue once we have had some sleep!

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Further to our announcement about the winners of our SD card Competition we have emailed all of you but have not had a response from everyone to send out their prize. If your name is listed below and you haven’t yet sent me your address please do so ASAP!

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Several mini USB to 3.5mm jack socket adapters have started to appear for sale on the web and on eBay etc.

It would appear that these adapters are designed for some other phone or device as it DOES NOT work with the HTC Hermes (M3100, TyTN etc). I got hold of one of these to test. No sound is heard through the headphones and the Hermes internal speaker is not muted.

The reason these adapters do not work is that the utilise a normal mini USB plug. Standard mini USB plugs only have connectors on one side which means that it can only connect to the USB data side of the socket.

Be careful what you are buying, if it’s a standard mini USB to 3.5mm jack then it’s no good.

I’m not aware of anyone making a compatible adapter for the Hermes at the moment but if you know otherwise, please let me know!